Le Guin's Steering The Craft, Chapter Seven: Point Of View And Voice (Exercise Seven: Points of View)
As I mentioned in my preceding post, the exercise here is fairly involved. It involves telling a scene that includes a minimum of three characters (though a larger number is encouraged), and while it does not need to be important, she emphasizes that "something should happen" in it, but should have little to no dialogue. In part one, the story is told in limited point of view, then retold, again in limited point of view but by a different character. In part two, it is encouraged to use the same scene as before, this time telling it from a detached third person narrator. In part three, tell the same narrative again, this time from the perspective of a bystander who witnesses the events but is not involved. Finally, in part four the story is told through an omniscient (or "involved", to use Le Guin's preferred term) narrator. I am going to attempt to keep all the passages with the same basic story.
Exercise Seven: Points Of View
Part One:
A) Charlie is sitting back in his chair. He looks at the clock, a few minutes until the class starts. Dennis isn't there yet, but that's not surprising. Dennis doesn't rush to Frond's class, Charlie thinks. He wouldn't either. He had been almost late every day this year, except the ones where he had actually been late, he considered. Frond was at his desk reading. It wasn't that Frond was a bad guy. Yeah, sure he was a geeky science teacher, but he was a nice enough guy, even if he and Dennis always suspected he was a total dork. Charlie considered: he hasn't busted me for being late almost ever, except that one day when I fell asleep in the cafeteria and showed up halfway through class. Which, honestly was fair. Dennis finally walked in and dropped his bag on the ground. He smile over at Charlie. Dennis wasn't a big Star Trek fan, but Charlie knew he was excited. It had taken Charlie all year to work Frond down, and it was only because it was literally the last day of school.
Charlie hadn't been the one to figure it out, but he had certainly been the one who had pressed Frond on the issue. I mean, how many other teachers at the school had written a TV episode? That was totally cool, and Charlie was interested. So, he would ask questions about it, all the time, every single day, in class. Like, Frond would be at the board asking a question about covalent bonds and Charlie would raise his hand and ask his where the idea for the story had come from or how he had gotten it in front of the right people. Frond, finally, agreed that he would show the episode of TNG he had written on the last day of class. And finally, that day was HERE. Charlie was all stoked. It wasn't like he had never seen the episode before, but this was different.
He had tried to explain this to Dennis, but it hadn't made much sense. As far as Charlie could tell, the only thing that Dennis appreciated about it at all, was one less day of Mr. Frond's lectures. Charlie looked around, The class was full, but nobody seemed all that excited. Frond got up to start the video. He didn't say anything. Charlie had thought he would at least say a little something. Somebody turned out the lights, and it got a bit quieter. The video began. Charlie sank back in his chair. He looked over at Frond, noticed he wasn't paying attention to the video, but was sitting by the door, reading by the light coming in from the hall. Charlie turned back to the TV. Picard was giving orders to the crew.
Then, suddenly, a cold wet rain, and the fire alarm. Charlie grabbed his bag and jumped up. He made his way out with the class. He tried to be calm, even though it couldn't be a drill. Nobody sets off the sprinklers in a drill. Outside, he found out what had happened: some fifth grader had stolen Monsieur Celine's match book and used it to set a garbage pail on fire. The principle stood up and dismissed the high school kids early. So, Charlie looked around and found Dennis, asked him to go off for a slice and a soda. Next year, he figured, Frond would really owe him.
B) Of course, Charlie was the first one in. First time, too. No surprise. It was his big day, right. Mr. Frond revealed to be the screenwriter for a mediocre episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The kid was at least sincere about it. He didn't really mind Charlie, but the fact was that his status as a supernerd was firmly entrenched, now and forever, by the revelation. So, he didn't was not happy about any of it.
He looked around the room. The kids were filtering in. He knew that most of them were just glad class was over and that he wasn't going to try cramming one last lesson in before Summer. What good would that do, anyhow? It would be a wasted day in any case, so he didn't mind showing a video or having fun, but he didn't really need the other teachers giving him shit about being a Trekkie. He did enjoy the show, sure, even now, and he had written a few more spec scripts, even one other episode (for Deep Space Nine), but he kept it separate.
The dvd was all cued up, he just pushed play and pulled his chair over by the door, shutting off the lights in the room. He kept the door open a crack, just a sliver of light so he could read his book, Death's End. The video wasn't playing long when it happened, sprinklers, alarms, kids shrieking in shock and panicing. He tried to keep them in order, but really, it was a mess.
Outside he found Michel Celine looking for a light, but the habit of smoking was one he had long ago given up. Besides, weren't they supposed to be acting responsibly. Celine just rolled his eyes and wandered after one of the math teachers
Clarence, the principal, walked over to him. They weren't sure how the fire had started, but it looked like it was on purpose, probably a middle schooler playing a prank. If it hadn't been the last day, they would likely have done something, but as it was, they had let the high school go and were calling parents for the rest of the kids. So, that was that. He went back to his office (the building had been cleared by the fire marshall, he was told) and packed up his things. He almost forgot the DVD, but it had never been turned off in the confusion, and as he was about to leave, the menu screen had looped around and begun to play the theme music. He ejected the disk and packed it with his things. This Summer, he thought, I think I'll write something for Voyager...
Okay, so I have made the decision to finish this in the morning. It has taken me a long while to get this far, and I still need to write a bunch more entries, so I will finish this tomorrow, and will, I hope, still be able to continue on with the next chapter as well...
Exercise Seven: Points Of View
Part One:
A) Charlie is sitting back in his chair. He looks at the clock, a few minutes until the class starts. Dennis isn't there yet, but that's not surprising. Dennis doesn't rush to Frond's class, Charlie thinks. He wouldn't either. He had been almost late every day this year, except the ones where he had actually been late, he considered. Frond was at his desk reading. It wasn't that Frond was a bad guy. Yeah, sure he was a geeky science teacher, but he was a nice enough guy, even if he and Dennis always suspected he was a total dork. Charlie considered: he hasn't busted me for being late almost ever, except that one day when I fell asleep in the cafeteria and showed up halfway through class. Which, honestly was fair. Dennis finally walked in and dropped his bag on the ground. He smile over at Charlie. Dennis wasn't a big Star Trek fan, but Charlie knew he was excited. It had taken Charlie all year to work Frond down, and it was only because it was literally the last day of school.
Charlie hadn't been the one to figure it out, but he had certainly been the one who had pressed Frond on the issue. I mean, how many other teachers at the school had written a TV episode? That was totally cool, and Charlie was interested. So, he would ask questions about it, all the time, every single day, in class. Like, Frond would be at the board asking a question about covalent bonds and Charlie would raise his hand and ask his where the idea for the story had come from or how he had gotten it in front of the right people. Frond, finally, agreed that he would show the episode of TNG he had written on the last day of class. And finally, that day was HERE. Charlie was all stoked. It wasn't like he had never seen the episode before, but this was different.
He had tried to explain this to Dennis, but it hadn't made much sense. As far as Charlie could tell, the only thing that Dennis appreciated about it at all, was one less day of Mr. Frond's lectures. Charlie looked around, The class was full, but nobody seemed all that excited. Frond got up to start the video. He didn't say anything. Charlie had thought he would at least say a little something. Somebody turned out the lights, and it got a bit quieter. The video began. Charlie sank back in his chair. He looked over at Frond, noticed he wasn't paying attention to the video, but was sitting by the door, reading by the light coming in from the hall. Charlie turned back to the TV. Picard was giving orders to the crew.
Then, suddenly, a cold wet rain, and the fire alarm. Charlie grabbed his bag and jumped up. He made his way out with the class. He tried to be calm, even though it couldn't be a drill. Nobody sets off the sprinklers in a drill. Outside, he found out what had happened: some fifth grader had stolen Monsieur Celine's match book and used it to set a garbage pail on fire. The principle stood up and dismissed the high school kids early. So, Charlie looked around and found Dennis, asked him to go off for a slice and a soda. Next year, he figured, Frond would really owe him.
B) Of course, Charlie was the first one in. First time, too. No surprise. It was his big day, right. Mr. Frond revealed to be the screenwriter for a mediocre episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The kid was at least sincere about it. He didn't really mind Charlie, but the fact was that his status as a supernerd was firmly entrenched, now and forever, by the revelation. So, he didn't was not happy about any of it.
He looked around the room. The kids were filtering in. He knew that most of them were just glad class was over and that he wasn't going to try cramming one last lesson in before Summer. What good would that do, anyhow? It would be a wasted day in any case, so he didn't mind showing a video or having fun, but he didn't really need the other teachers giving him shit about being a Trekkie. He did enjoy the show, sure, even now, and he had written a few more spec scripts, even one other episode (for Deep Space Nine), but he kept it separate.
The dvd was all cued up, he just pushed play and pulled his chair over by the door, shutting off the lights in the room. He kept the door open a crack, just a sliver of light so he could read his book, Death's End. The video wasn't playing long when it happened, sprinklers, alarms, kids shrieking in shock and panicing. He tried to keep them in order, but really, it was a mess.
Outside he found Michel Celine looking for a light, but the habit of smoking was one he had long ago given up. Besides, weren't they supposed to be acting responsibly. Celine just rolled his eyes and wandered after one of the math teachers
Clarence, the principal, walked over to him. They weren't sure how the fire had started, but it looked like it was on purpose, probably a middle schooler playing a prank. If it hadn't been the last day, they would likely have done something, but as it was, they had let the high school go and were calling parents for the rest of the kids. So, that was that. He went back to his office (the building had been cleared by the fire marshall, he was told) and packed up his things. He almost forgot the DVD, but it had never been turned off in the confusion, and as he was about to leave, the menu screen had looped around and begun to play the theme music. He ejected the disk and packed it with his things. This Summer, he thought, I think I'll write something for Voyager...
Okay, so I have made the decision to finish this in the morning. It has taken me a long while to get this far, and I still need to write a bunch more entries, so I will finish this tomorrow, and will, I hope, still be able to continue on with the next chapter as well...
Good luck!
ReplyDelete